Looks like a pretty clear path to Nebraska in Indianapolis. Then to the NCG...

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

More than anything it is a testament to the BCS era. Teams are terrified of taking OoC losses because of what a battle it makes getting to the title game (count the number of marquee SEC OoC games while noting that the few played were all on neutral fields). With the need to schedule marquee games 5+ years in advance (Cal was good when added for this home and home) if that one marquee match-up ends up sucking team's schedules are ruined.

The Buckeyes are leading the charge to take a real schedule on starting in 2014 (this will be impossible because of the schedule delay) and have already added home and homes with Oklahoma, TCU, Texas, Cinci, BC, UNC and Oregon in the mid-later part of this decade/begining of the next. Smith said point blank he wants four top 50 OoC games going forward.

Well, and next year San Diego State is a BCS team. Yeah. The Big East is a joke. So, we've got a Big East team, a Pac-12 team, a MAC doormat and the battle of the bands (although since the Florida A&M drum major was killed due to hazing, I'm not sure how good the band there will be anymore).

I know they tried to balance out the divisions, but if Wisky continues to be mediocre and Penn State starts its inevitable decline (the loss of that many scholarships is going to have an impact, no matter how good O'Brien is), we're going to be in weak B1G schedules for the forseeable future. Hopefully we go to 16, get into pods, and then can maintain decent schedule strength.

The nice thing about finishing 12-0 is that sportswriters are really lazy and generally don't do alot of research, so they will not notice that tOSU lost some incredibly important pieces on D (or that they need some players to really step up in the positions where their weren't significant losses).

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Govbarney wrote:Is that a typo... Do we really face Wisconsin 2 yrs in a row at home

Nope...not a typo. They played in Madison this year.

Also, Roby is staying (per a good Bill Greene source)...but Furls is right...they really do lose an awful lot on defense(arguably five of their seven best players...Simon, Hankins, Williams, Sabino, Boren...the other two being Shazier and Roby)

And it was a defense that looked terrible for half the season...at least.

The 2013 schedule would have looked better if Vandy hadn't bolted, and Cinci rescheduled to a different year. That would have made three of four from BCS AQ conferences. At the time Cal was scheduled in the middle of the previous decade, they were a legit Top 15-20 program. Who knew? Nebraska and MSU rotating off for two years at the same time is just the luck of the draw.

"I believe it is the nature of the human species to reject what is true but unpleasant and to embrace what is obviously false but comforting." H.L. Mencken

I'll believe Roby is back when I see #1 on the field next year. He is a 1st-3rd round pick, gotta get paid while you can. You are just one ACL tear from falling a day and losing millions. Same thing with Hank. I think the D will be OK, but there are some severe question marks. You just have to hope that some of last year's recruits are ready this year (Marcus, Williams, Perkins, etc.)

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.